Towards an Automated Trading Ecosystem Charles-Albert LEHALLE May 16, 2014
Outline 1 The need for Automated Trading Suppliers Users More technically... 2 Implied Changes New practices New (infrastructure) risks? Charles-Albert LEHALLE 2 / 15
Towards an Automated Trading Ecosystem The last years (since 1980) have seen an electronization of markets. Market-wide pressure (from regulation and market participants): to obtain a more transparent Price Formation Process; in conjunction of an increase of technological capabilities (Moore s Law, big data, etc); with an increasing competition between platforms (Reg ATS/NMS US, 1999/2005 and MiFID Europe, 2007 ). Last years (after the crisis), investment banks focussed on more linear products (ETFs, smart-beta, etc), for which trading costs are near from negligible. Need for optimal trading schemes. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 3 / 15
Suppliers of Automated Trading Services / Tools Platforms provide access to their matching engines, matching services (internalization, tactics, order routing, etc) and data feeds. + Colocation, execution (quality) analysis, software, testing ( life or sandboxes ), storage. Brokers / sell side Direct Market Access (DMA), data feeds, order routing, execution algorithms (portfolio or single line), Transaction Costs Analysis (TCA), execution services, research (small to medium scale). + Broker Crossing Networks (BCN) and Dark Pools. Technology Vendors data feeds, storage capabilities, back testing, development frameworks, toolkits. (networks, datacenters, hardware, etc). + common protocols/standards agencies (FIX). And providers of information (calendars, news, corporate events, etc). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 4 / 15
Users of Automated Trading Services: Investors Source: Does Algorithmic Trading Improve Liquidity?, JoF 2011 (Hendershott, Jones, Menkveld). Retail investors use smart routing and BCN, Institutional Investors can use care orders delegated (by brokers) to algorithms, order routing, direct algo trading users. Dealing desks of large investors have to cut a portfolio to use the adequate route on each subset. It is a matter of market timing, order routing and TCA. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 5 / 15
Users of Automated Sces: Intermediaries Brokers use trading algorithms to execute orders in behalf of their clients; Liquidity facilitation and principal trading use automated tools; Market makers (of many kinds) need to automate their practices to fulfill their quoting obligations. BCN and Dark Pools can be seen as facilities in between intermediation (liquidity provision) and platforms (matching). High Frequency Trading positioning can be discussed, nevertheless they are massive users of automated trading. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 6 / 15
Optimal Trade Scheduling The faster you trade, the more trading impacts the price a unfavourable way. The slower you trade, the more exposed to the risk of the price diverging from your decision price. A mean-variance criterion can be used (Optimal execution of portfolio transactions, Journal of Risk, Almgren, Chriss; 2000 ). Then it is similar to Markowitz allocation on time slots : on the expectation side, you put your market impact (the way your trading impacts the price); on the risk side, you put autocorrelations of the price. Source: [Lehalle et al., 2013] Extensions to different cost functions have been proposed [Bouchard et al., 2011]. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 7 / 15
Extending trade scheduling to market making Source: [Guéant et al., 2013] Seen from a trader controlling its inventory using he ask and bid prices, the largest inventory the more exposed to market risk (especially adverse selection ). With a tiny inventory you never have the occasion to gain the spread. Stochastic control allows to solve this problem: the value function v(t, X) is transported to v(t + dt, X + dx(c)) depending on the control c. Since the terminal values can be computed as a function of X, it is possible to solve backward and find the best control as a function of t and X (state space). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 8 / 15
Learning by trading In practice the trading process takes place in an uncertain environment. The trader explores the market conditions while he is trading. Source: [Lehalle et al., 2013] Dedicated optimizing schemes can be used under such conditions. Typical applications: trading in several liquidity pools with uncertainty [Pagès et al., 2011]; when market reaction to trading cannot be properly modelled [Laruelle et al., 2013]. Exploration-exploitation approaches can thus be formalized. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 9 / 15
Different techniques for different goals Up to now, different heuristics have been developed by practitioners, later formalized by academics. Approach Cost function Control Used for Trade scheduling mean-variance trading rate Stochastic control Learning almost any asymptotic at infinity trading rate or price (any) rate or price Agency algo trading medium term Market making Market timing explorations Liquidity seeking short term Agency brokers and high frequency market makers are typically using such approaches, fine tuned thanks to empirical additions. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 10 / 15
A standard optimization paradox The more parameters you add to a situation, the better the optimum. But the more complex to find. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 11 / 15
A standard optimization paradox The more parameters you add to a situation, the better the optimum. But the more complex to find. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 11 / 15
A standard optimization paradox The more parameters you add to a situation, the better the optimum. But the more complex to find. a large academic literature emerged to formalize the optimization of the trading process (see [Lehalle, 2013] in the Handbook on systemic risk, 2013 for a review and Market Microstructure in Practice, 201 for examples of use). For instance, as a result, a large trader can now liquidate a position using a majority of limit (liquidity adding) orders. The notion of liquidity changed. A dynamical and probabilistic approach is now needed. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 11 / 15
New practices As consequences: the split between market and limit orders is no more the one between investors and market makers; less delegation to intermediaries (institutional investors dealing desks are more in charge): better alignment with buy side needs, more competition pressure on intermediaries. markets are far more multilateral than bilateral (what is multilateral market making?). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 12 / 15
Classification of outages Charles-Albert LEHALLE 13 / 15
New (infrastructure) risks? This transformation leads to different potential issues: competition pressure on intermediaries and market operators leads them to share the same resources: emergence of few crucial nodes. Risk is concentrated in these few points. need for norms and certifications (reco. 1,2,6,8,9 of [Abergel et al., 2013]) + Need of comprehensive and efficient circuit breakers (reco. 3). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 14 / 15
New (infrastructure) risks? This transformation leads to different potential issues: competition pressure on intermediaries and market operators leads them to share the same resources: emergence of few crucial nodes. Risk is concentrated in these few points. need for norms and certifications (reco. 1,2,6,8,9 of [Abergel et al., 2013]) + Need of comprehensive and efficient circuit breakers (reco. 3). Operational risk has more consequence since all goes faster. need for development cycle standards and risk assessment (reco. 9). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 14 / 15
New (infrastructure) risks? This transformation leads to different potential issues: competition pressure on intermediaries and market operators leads them to share the same resources: emergence of few crucial nodes. Risk is concentrated in these few points. need for norms and certifications (reco. 1,2,6,8,9 of [Abergel et al., 2013]) + Need of comprehensive and efficient circuit breakers (reco. 3). Operational risk has more consequence since all goes faster. need for development cycle standards and risk assessment (reco. 9). More complexity in the trading process if analysed with old tools / methods. need for education (reco. 7, 12, 18). Charles-Albert LEHALLE 14 / 15
Based on Abergel, F., Lehalle, C.-A., and Rosenbaum, M. (2013). Understanding the Stakes of High Frequency Trading. Technical report, Institut Louis Bachelier. Bouchard, B., Dang, N.-M., and Lehalle, C.-A. (2011). Optimal control of trading algorithms: a general impulse control approach. SIAM J. Financial Mathematics, 2(1):404 438. Guéant, O., Lehalle, C.-A., and Fernandez-Tapia, J. (2013). Dealing with the inventory risk: a solution to the market making problem. Mathematics and Financial Economics, 4(7):477 507. Laruelle, S., Lehalle, C.-A., and Pagès, G. (2013). Optimal posting price of limit orders: learning by trading. Mathematics and Financial Economics, 7(3):359 403. Lehalle, C.-A. (2013). Market Microstructure knowledge needed to control an intra-day trading process. In Fouque, J.-P. and Langsam, J., editors, Handbook on Systemic Risk. Cambridge University Press. Lehalle, C.-A., Laruelle, S., Burgot, R., Pelin, S., and Lasnier, M. (2013). Market Microstructure in Practice. World Scientific publishing. Pagès, G., Laruelle, S., and Lehalle, C.-A. (2011). Optimal split of orders across liquidity pools: a stochastic algorithm approach. SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematics, 2:1042 1076. Charles-Albert LEHALLE 15 / 15